This is a response to a recent letter to the editor that had the headline “Suggestions In Lieu of Pledging Allegiance.”
To whom we give our allegiance to is not a religious matter, but one of national survival and an expression of pride. Our pledge of allegiance is not religious, but one that establishes our commitment to community and the wider nation.
Throughout history, as argued by the author of the letter, governments and empires forced people to give allegiance to an established religion or sovereign, usually under penalty of death or imprisonment, however, it is clear the Pledge of Allegiance does not say that.
We do not pledge allegiance to any god, but to our nation that so many have died and sacrificed for.
We continue to hear selfish people who misconstrue devotions to our communities with the real purpose to either not support our nation or abolish the very existence of God.
It is clear and without doubt that the majority of people believe in the existence of God and yet it is the few who are atheists who wish to remove that very ideal at all costs.
We live in a nation where the freedom of religion is supreme. Nowhere and at no other time in history has a government protected that right, yet there are so many vocal misguided people who refuse to say they pledge allegiance to the nation that protects them and gives them those freedoms.
Increasingly today we live in a globalized world where borders are torn down and identities are erased for new ones that abolish self-identity and national pride for a world allegiance instead.
Every American should be proud to vocalize and pledge allegiance to our nation from an early age and to understand this nation is one worth fighting for; that this nation should stay united and that societal norms of the belief of God should not be drowned out by the few people who refuse to acknowledge our special place in the world of nations.
I would challenge the reader to live in China or Russia and ask if refusing to pledge their allegiance to those governments in a publication would be celebrated without fear the way freedom is celebrated here.
I would warn that individual to pledge allegiance to our nation because one day if his argument is accepted as righteous, the glue and bonds of this nation may one day weaken and the individual will win and the community will be lost. Amen.
Joseph Adams
Manalapan